Within the next few years, India is set to join a select group of
countries with a fifth-generation fighter plane in its arsenal.

India's upcoming jet, the Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter
Aircraft (FGFA), is the product of a joint-development plan with
Russia in which each country foots half the cost of co-developing
the plane.

India's FGFA is a variant of Russia's T-50 fifth-generation
fighter. The T-50 is still in prototype. But Russia claims that
it can hypothetically
surpass the upcoming U.S. F-35 in terms of maneuverability
and control — even if the T-50 won't be quite as stealth as the
F-35 or the F-22.

The FGFA will maintain much of the T-50's design, although it
will be tweaked to
meet the specifications of the Indian Air Force. Some of the
changes will allow the plane to use a wider variety of missile
types, along with
front and side-facing radars that would give pilots a wider
range of vision.

According to the joint-development deal agreed upon by Russia and
India, each country will pay
50% of the cost of developing the aircraft and would share
equal development responsibilities. However, the majority of the
T-50's development has been carried out in Russia due to a lack
of infrastructure in India.

So India has pushed for a
greater share of the development of the aircraft to be
carried out domestically. One of India's goals in the production
of the FGFA was to use the plane to help achieve self-sufficiency
for military production.

India is currently the world's largest arms importer. It was
responsible for 14% of
all global arms importswith
75% of its weaponry coming from Russia. India also likely feels
pressured to have a fifth-generation jet given China's own
development of a similarly advanced fighter. If China's
development is successful, it is likely to sell its fighters to
India's main regional and geopolitical nemesis — Pakistan.

The first prototype of the FGFA is scheduled to
arrive in India in 2014 for extensive flight testing.